Coaching Courses

It doesn’t matter how good a runner you are, everybody is able to help other runners achieve their best. To be a coach is a rewarding experience as you get to enhance your knowledge and skills, help support the club, and take pride and enjoyment from the success of the runners you have helped.

Ealing Eagles is fortunate that we now have a number of experienced runners and coaches at different levels who are able to contribute to the training sessions made available to club members. If you wish to volunteer with the club in this way, you will be encouraged to gain the appropriate qualifications and supported as you gain experience in assisting with and then leading sessions. The details below give an overview of the different qualifications available. You can also contact coaching@ealingeagles.com for more information.

LiRF

The Leadership in Running Fitness (LiRF) qualification is the first step on the coaching ladder and achieved on a one day course held by England Athletics. You will learn the basics of session design and health and safety as well as getting to run around a lot and put your new skills into practice. Once qualified you will be able to take a more active role in the club and help lead sessions as well as increasing your own understanding and confidence as a runner and coach.

The club offers financial assistance for this course. All we ask is that our leaders aim to use their qualification after they qualify and earn 10 credits.

You can earn credits by completing any combination of:

A. 2 credits awarded if leading a session (not including club run!)B. 1 credit awarded if acting as the support coach for a CiRF led session or leading a run group in a beginners’ session (general volunteering for beginners’ sessions will not contribute credits towards this refund)

This makes it flexible for you to earn your units to reach the 10.

We ask attendees to pay 100% of the LiRF course fees initially. For courses completed before 28 February 2019, the refund available is 75% of the course fees. For courses completed after 1 March 2019, a refund of 100% of the course fees will be made.

Going Further

If you are looking to develop your skills further many options are available to you. The ones listed below are just a few:

1) Coaching Assistant

This qualification is for those who wish to move towards being a coach and begin to gather experience in the detail of making coaching decisions. Most people wishing to achieve this qualification will be working with juniors and so you should contact juniors@ealingeagles.com for more information.

2) CiRF – Coaching in Running Fitness

This is an endurance running qualification primarily for those working with runners up to and including the event group development stage. All applicants must be active leaders or coaches who have completed as a minimum a Level 1 Fitness in Running & Walking, LiRF or Coaching Assistant qualification. CiRF is about the broad application to non track based endurance running events rather than specific events or distances and is not designed for coaches who want to work with runners taking part in track based events, such as 800m–10k track races or steeplechase. When qualified you will be insured to coach without supervision.

The club offers financial assistance for this course. All we ask is that our leaders aim to use their qualification after they qualify and earn 20 credits (to reflect the greater cost).

You can earn credits by completing a combination of:

A. 2 credits awarded if leading a session (not including club run!)B. 1 credit awarded if acting as the support coach for a CiRF led session (to a maximum of 4 credits to allow you to start earning credits while gaining experience but with the expectation that you will progress to coaching sessions without supervision)

We ask attendees to pay 100% of the CiRF course fees initially. For courses completed before 28 February 2019, the refund available is 75% of the course fees. For courses completed after 1 March 2019, a refund of 100% of the course fees will be made.

3) Athletics Coach

This qualification is the cornerstone of the Coach Education Programme. The course plus assessment period is a total of four days including the formal assessment. Candidates will be able to plan a progressive training programme for athletes coaching a range of activities to prepare the developing athlete to run, jump and throw. When qualified you will be insured to coach without supervision. This qualification is required for those wishing to coach juniors in which case you should contact juniors@ealingeagles.com for more information. If you wish to use this qualification to work with seniors, the refund arrangements for course fees will be as for the CiRF qualification.